


the colors of our heartbeats

by stonestars



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Soulmate AU (sort of)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-05 15:54:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14047680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonestars/pseuds/stonestars
Summary: Some people are inherently meant to influence each other.A person’s life is changed with every person they come across. Some people change your life only for a moment, but others… others hold an undeniable influence over you, staining your life with colors that will not wash away.-This story is a story of bonds forged over a hundred years and broken and then formed again; it is a story of the way things were, the way things are, and the way things could be.





	1. white like the light they are chasing

**Author's Note:**

> This is a play on the “everything is black and white until you meet your soulmate au,” which resulted from a very long conversation between me and a number of excellent people on the TFW discord (thank you guys you’re all wonderful this idea wouldn’t be so damn cool without y’all’s help).  
> This AU has not just your romantic “one-true-love” soulmate giving you colors, but rather, people who are/will be important to your life each give you a color. Everyone begins to see these colors differently, and at different points in their relationships with people. Some people see it from the start, some people only begin to see it when they let that person into their heart.  
> 

Some people are inherently meant to influence each other.

A person’s life is changed with every person they come across. Some people change your life only for a moment, but others… others hold an undeniable influence over you, staining your life with colors that will not wash away.

-

When you are born, your life is black and white. Many start seeing two colors almost immediately; their mother’s and their father’s. But whether or not you see them, your life continues, and as it does, more and more colors seep into your vision.

For some, color explodes the moment they first meet the person who will give it to them. Others it fades in, starting with a dusty shadow of the color that strengthens over time as the bonds between them deepen. Others it waits a while, until one moment something snaps and the color floods the world.

No one knows quite why, or how, colors decide to form. But everyone knows one thing; friends, family, lovers, mentors, their influence is undeniable in the way you see the world.

-

This world, with its two suns, knows two things.

  1. Anyone who will shape your life for the better, who will become someone undeniably important to you, gives you a color
  2. Sometimes the colors know what someone will mean to you before you do



This story, though it morphs and changes more than any, holds a rainbow. It also holds so much more, but the seven that come together to fight their way through more than anyone would have foreseen form a rainbow in the way they find solace in each other.

This story is many colors; it is red for the girl that gives them their fire and their fight, orange for the captain that carries them through a hundred stormy skies, yellow for the protector who fights to keep them safe, green for the man who helps them keep their faith, blue for the girl who keeps their story close to her heart, indigo for the boy who approaches the worlds they land in like riddles, and purple for the wizard who pretends not to care but fights for those he loves. It is the colors of a family who will fight through anything and everything to stay together and protect the things they love.

This story is many colors, and it is also white like the light they are chasing throughout all of existence. After all, white is every color all at once. The colors they give to each other become something more than a rainbow; they coalesce into everything, including this white light. This story is every bond they have formed, every time a color blossoms from their laughs or fades into their lives with little more than a whisper.

This story is a story of bonds forged over a hundred years and broken and then formed again; it is a story of the way things were, the way things are, and the way things could be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic will start with each of the seven birds, their colors, and how they appear to the other birds. But when I finish those, I’m likely gonna explore things such as Julia and Kalen for Magnus, Kravitz, Sazed for Taako, Angus, just to name a few. I’m also going to explore the colors fading in and out with Luce erasing their memories and everything. I don’t want to take on too much all at once though, so we’ll see!


	2. red like the lipstick she wears when she laughs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She gives them the color of their uniforms, she gives them the color of the lipstick she wears when she laughs and the stripes on peppermint candy, she gives them strawberries and lava and crayon wax and the velvet dress she wore when she and Barry played their song.

The colors they give each other are always present in their worlds, but Lup's might be the most prevalent. She fits herself into each of their lives like it's a second nature, her smile becoming something they can trust in, something they can rely on to keep them from losing their way.  
Of all of them, it seems most fitting that Lup gives them  _red._ She is their fire; an undeniable part of their heart.

In being a part of their lives, Lup gives them so many things. She gives them the color of their uniforms, she gives them the color of the lipstick she wears when she laughs and the stripes on peppermint candy, she gives them strawberries and lava and crayon wax and the velvet dress she wore when she and Barry played their song.

-

Taako has always had Lup’s red, it’s a color that bleeds into his cooking and clothing and for the longest time it’s the only color he can see. He finds comfort in the reds of the world, in tomatoes, in strawberries, in peppers and pomegranates. He's memorized every red food in the book, always adds a flare of red to his cooking because it's the only way he can make it look beautiful to his own eyes; for him, red is the color of family, of holding onto each other for dear life, of how fiercely they defend each other. It is a color of the wine he spills that stains the carpet and his clothing and is impossible to wipe away. It is the color that he knows he will never wipe from his heart.

Barry meets Lup and shakes her hand and suddenly she’s smiling at him with lips the color of his heartbeat speeding up and he freezes because it’s the brightest thing he’s ever seen and she laughs at the way he trips over his own tongue and tells him not to stare too much.  
He blushes too much, around her, because she's so _vivid_ to him, and it's hard to breathe when she looks at him. Her laugh makes his heart speed up, and when it does the shades of red in the world are brighter than Barry ever thought possible; for him, red is the color of love and her laugh and the way that he feels when she looks at him. It is the color of her smile right before she kisses him and the feeling of being loved, of being wanted. It is the color of his heartbeat; a color he did not know he couldn’t live without.

The first time Magnus and Lup laugh together, he high fives her and it sends ripples through his world. Suddenly her cloak is red and her lipstick is too, and so is the sleeve of his jacket and the still-healing cut across the back of his hand. And their eyes meet and she grins, because they both know, and she says “hell yeah big guy, I knew there was a reason I liked you” and they both laugh again; for him, red is the color of the sister he didn’t know he needed, of playing pranks with the best intentions and of something he wants to protect. It is the color that surrounds the family he comes to love more than anything, and the color of making someone laugh for the first time in far too long.

When the twins blow into Davenport’s office, a dusty red sits in the color of Lup’s lips as she introduces herself and he knows she is someone that needs to be a part of their journey. When he watches the Hunger consume their plane, the colors inside of it become a little more defined as his bond with the rest of the crew is inevitably strengthened, but when he turns around and sees the red in each of their cloaks, Lup’s is the brightest. It takes cycles for the rest of the world to catch up in color; for him, red is the color of a commitment to keep the people he cares about safe, it is the color of finding hope beyond the darkness and the color of someone who has saved them from themselves time and time again. It is a color he quickly comes to trust in its constancy, a color that gives him strength to keep fighting his way through world after world after world.

For Merle, Lup’s red is the second color that comes into his life. He’s just beginning to wonder why he can’t see any other colors, beginning to wonder if he’s really meant to be part of the team, and he’s gardening to take his mind off it. He’s gardening even though it’s late and the only light he has to go by is the one radiating from the bond engine at the back of the ship and the moon overhead. But he can’t sleep, so he’s gardening, and then Lup is there behind him with a “whatcha up to, Merle,” and he practically jumps out of his skin. He turns to her, clapping a hand over his heart. “For the love of Pan, Lup,” he says, “you tryin’a kill me?”  
Lup laughs and waves him off and Merle turns back to the flowers in front of him, a few of them now dyed red in the moonlight, and he smiles; for him, red is a sign that he _is_ meant to be there, it is the color that gives him roses and his family and reminds him why he must be strong. It is the color of the girl who laughs and reminds all of them why they need to keep going. It is the color that he sees behind closed eyes every time he is burnt by their enemy, and it is a color he believes in almost as strongly as he believes in his god.

Lup’s color comes into Lucretia’s life in the strokes of a paintbrush; with one stroke it is there, with the next it is gone, until one day it lingers on the canvas. During an early cycle, they are all sitting around, and Lucretia is writing, as always, but Lup pauses the conversation and calls out to her and winks after Lucretia hurriedly gives an answer and for just an instant red floods the world, and then it disappears. Later, Lucretia is writing, she's always writing, and Lup plops down on the couch next to her and lays her head on Lucretia’s shoulder and just watches, and until she lifts her head again Lucretia sees the red of the world so vividly. When the moment is broken, and everything goes back to normal, Lucretia almost wishes it hadn’t.  
Lup’s red only becomes a constant after the first time she sees Lup cry; they lose Taako early in a cycle and she finds Lup in the kitchen trying not to sob while cutting up vegetables for dinner. She walks up and puts a hand on Lup's shoulder because she doesn’t know how else to help, and suddenly Lup’s cloak is red and the tomatoes on the counter are, too, and even Lup’s eyes are rimmed with red when she looks up and says “what am I gonna do, Luce,” and for the first time the red does not fade when the moment passes; for her, red is the color of her sister, of laughter and hope and of someone who will not let her stay silent forever. It’s the color that ties her to the family she never thought she’d have, but it’s wholly and undeniably the color of _Lup_ before anything else.

Red means a lot of things to their family, it _means_ their family. But first and foremost, red means Lup. Red means Lup and how she never lets them get lost in themselves, it means the way she will not let herself go down without a fight and it means the flames she will not let them forget. Red is many things, but before anything it’s the love she holds for each of them, fierce as any fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you once again to the people on the TFW discord who helped develop this au, it really wouldn't be the same without their help tbqh. Next up is Dav, who gives them the color of the sky when the sun sets (orange).  
> Dunno when it will be up, but hopefully soon.


End file.
